110 



KN()\\I.1-,1)C,|- 



March. 1912. 



bi'iii'.illi and then IriMlcd with w.itcr. proved siiiiil.irly c.ip:il>li- 

 of .iflci-lint,' llic plioiii^jiapliic pl.ito. The formation of tlir 

 socalied ainnioiiimn anialK.ini also developed the ;ictivc 

 rays, while the decomposition of sodium mctasiUcate by 

 means of acids proved surprisingly rapid in this respect. 



Fven in the reactions taking place in the hardeniuK of 

 Portland cement or in the setting of plaster of Paris and water, 

 excellent inla^;es were produced in about three days. 



These experinienis sufjfjest the possibility of devising an 

 ex.ict photographic method of measmiug and comparing the 

 velocities of difterent chemical reactions. They may .ilso 

 atTord an explanation why certain observers have found that 

 rays emitted by the human body would affect a photographic 

 plate in the dark, while others have been unable to confirm 

 the occurrence of the phenemcnon. In the light of these 

 experiments, it would not be surprising to find that the 

 chemical reactions ceaselessly proceeding in the body should 

 manifest their activity photographically much more rapidly in 

 the case of one person than another. 



HLE.ACHING OF FLOUR .VNO ITS FFFIXT ON 

 DIGESTION. — The late.st addition to the controversy as to 

 the harmlessness or the reverse of the artificial ageing of 

 flour by means of bleaching is the paper contributed to the 

 J. III,!. Rnt>. Clicm. (1911, III. 912) by Messrs. Wesener and 

 Teller. Of the various methods that have been proposed for 

 bleaching flour, only those in which oxides of nitrogen are 

 employed have proved commercially successful, and experi- 

 ments upon the digestibility of the treated flour have therefore 

 centred upon the latter. 



In the present commimication the results, which are given 

 in detail, show that nitrites do not interfere with the digestion 

 of starch by diastase, even when present in the proportion of 

 0-1 per cent. Nor is the process of pancreatic digestion 

 checked either by nitrites in a relatively large amount or by 

 protein which has been treated with nitrous acid or nitrites in 

 not excessive quantity; while in peptic digestion nitric or nitrous 

 acid may take the place of the hydrochloric acid natur.iUy 

 present. At the same time attention is drawn to the fact that 

 it has never been proved that commercial bleached flours 

 contain either nitric or nitrous acids, or mineral nitrites, and 

 that, hence, results obtained with these acids and their mineral 

 salts are not necessarily conclusive. .Apparently, however, 

 the oxides of nitrogen enter into direct combination with the 

 colouring matter of the flour during the bleaching process, and 

 the resulting compound gives the nitrite reactions. Physio- 

 logical experiments have shown that the compound is not 

 poisonous, and that it has no perceptible etfcct upon the blood 



P.ARAFFIN OIL FROM A YORKSHIRE COAL 

 SEAM. — There are few recorded instances of the occurrence 

 of paraffin oil in British coal seams, and the chemical compo- 

 sition of the oil in these cases has seldom been ascertained. 

 Particular interest thus attaches to the account given bv 

 Dr. Cohen and Mr. C. P. Finn (/. Soc. Clieiii. Iiid., 191 i. 

 XXXI, 12) of the oil discovered in a seam in the Hemsworlli 

 Collieries, from the position of 



its occurrence and its bearing 

 upon the theory of the form- 

 ation of petroleum oil. 



The oil was found in the 

 Haigh Moor scam at a point six 

 hundred and ninety yards from 

 the surface, where the road from 

 the bottom of the pit crossed a 

 fault which displaced the strat.i 

 in a downward direction to a 

 (maximum) extent of eleven 

 feet. Subsequently more oil 

 was discovered in a drift made 

 early last year, the strata about 

 the line of the fault being satu- 

 rated with a yellow liquid, which 

 became dark brown on exposure to the air. These strata, 

 the position of which is indicated in the accompanying 

 diagram, consisted of blue stone bind interspersed with 



Figure 108. 



ironstone b.inds, and intersected with soft white sandstone. 

 Apparently there had been no formation of natural gas at 

 this point. 



Tiic oil collected for examination was a d.irk brown semi- 

 solid m.'iterial, which on fractional distillation yielded a series 

 of fractions r.inging from a light mobile yellow oil boiling 

 below 150 C. to semi-Sf)lid dark yellow products boiling above 

 300 C. The constituents of these fractions were very similar 

 to the hydrocarbons of petroleum products of high boiling- 

 point and suggested a coinnion origin. Possibly the oil had 

 been formed in strata beneath the coal seam, and, finding its 

 way through the fissure of the fault, had condensed in the 

 cooler upper strata. 



Nothing in the nature of the coal itself pointed to its being 

 the source of the oil, nor were there any signs of the intrusion 

 of igneous rock, which in the heated condition might have 

 caused destructive distillation of the coal. 



.Assuming this oil to have a petroleum origin, a difficulty 

 is created by the absence from the strata of any fish remains, 

 such as are usually associated with the occurrence of 

 petroleum. Possibly deposits of cannel (in which aquatic 

 remains are frefpiently found) might have had some connection 

 with the formation of the oil. Vet, although there were such 

 deposits in the vicinity of the coal seam, the oil was only found 

 in the neighbourhood of the fault. 



GEOLOGY. 



By G. W. TvKRELL, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S. 



EROSION IN THE HIMALAYAS.— In addition to the 

 ordinary agents of denudation, others more irregular and 

 abnormal are brought into play in great mountain regions. 

 Dr. .Arthur Neve enumerates three of these exceptional factors 

 in a paper on Himalayan Erosion iOeo^r. Journ.. October. 

 1911). Many of the great valleys of the Western Himalayas 

 contain huge ancient riverine or glacial deposits, two thousand 

 to three thousand feet thick, through which the present rivers 

 have cut their way. This material is so loose and unstable 

 that even in a dry climate, such as that of Lower Baltistan 

 and Gilgit, landslips are constantly occurring ; while torrential 

 rains, as may be imagined, have an enormous etTect in this 

 direction. The erosion due to the landslips themselves is 

 supplemented by that of floods caused by the cataclysmal 

 outbreak of water dammed up by landslip debris or" by 

 glaciers. These floods cause tremendous erosion in the main 

 valleys. Some sixty-nine yejirs ago, according to one account, 

 a vast landslip blocked the Indus river below Bunji. submerg- 

 ing the valleys for a length of thirty-six miles. A similar 

 block, this time due to glaciers, occurred in the Suru valley in 

 1896. The burst, when it came, devastated the fields and 

 villages for forty miles below. 



The last of these abnormal factors of erosion is the effect of 

 earthtjuakes in initiating the operation of landslips and floods. 

 In the earthquake areas of the Himalayas, the soils of the 

 hillsides and plateaux are split and crevassed, large and small 

 landslips happen, drainage is thereby diverted or blocked, and 

 the streams later burst out with destructive force. Dr. Neve 

 gives an impressive picture of the enormous erosive forces at 

 the command of nature in great mountain regions such as the 

 Himalayas. 



NEPHELINE SYENITES OF WEST AFRICA.— The 

 region of Christiania, described in a classic memoir by Briigger. 

 and noted for its richness in rare minerals associated with 

 alkaline igneous rocks, has a rival in the .Archipelago of Los. 

 situated close to the shore of French Guinea on the West 

 Coast of .Africa. The islands, three in number, consist of 

 masses of nepheline syenite with their usual s.atellitic asso- 

 ciates — tinguaites,essexites,theralites.shonkinites.camptonites. 

 and monchiquites. These are fully described by Lacroi.x in a 

 finely illustrated memoir. " Les Syenites Nepheliniques de 

 r.Archipel de Los et leur Mineranx" tXotiv. Arch. d. Miis. 

 Paris (5) iii, 1911). In addition to a rich series of rare 

 minerals, such as astrophyllite, riukite. wiihlerite. endialyte, 

 catapleiite. and pyrochlore. usually found .associated with 



